Category Archives: Humor and Observations

America’s Forgotten Pin-Up Girl (Full Figure Woman Hilda)

In today’s world where anorexia and heroin chic fashion abound, it is kind of cool to show that full figured women were popular and even pin-ups at one time.  I came across this and wanted to share it.

America’s Forgotten Pin-Up Girl

In “have you met” “Nostalgia” on August 2, 2013 at 1:14 pm

Word of the day:

Zaftig /zäftig/ adjective: (of a woman) Having a full, rounded figure; plump.

Meet Hilda, the creation of illustrator Duane Bryers and pin-up art’s best kept secret. Voluptuous in all the right places, a little clumsy but not at all shy about her figure, Hilda was one of the only atypical plus-sized pin-up queens to grace the pages of American calendars from the 1950s up until the early 1980s, and achieved moderate notoriety in the 1960s.

“She’s a creation out of my head. I had various models over the years, but some of my best Hilda paintings I’ve ever done were done without a model,” veteran artist Duane told the online pin-up gallery Toil,

Despite being one of history’s longest running calendar queens alongside the likes of Marilyn Monroe, even the most dedicated vintage enthusiasts probably won’t have come across Hilda before.

“[Duane Bryers] had the chops to have been one of the greatest pin-up artists in America, but possibly his lust for ample-sized women prevented that,” admits the online gallery curator and Hilda collector, Les Toil.

That isn’t to say Hilda wasn’t capable of “inspiring strong sexual sensations in any red blooded woman-lover” (and still is). Another reason why our Hilda may not have not have enjoyed as much success is due to the fact that her face and body would often look different from calendar to calendar. “Unfortunately Mr. Bryers’ continuity skills weren’t perfect (which he admitted),” notes Les.

Of the moment he first discovered the lost Hilda watercolour illustrations, Les recalls:

“Quite a few summers back while perusing a local outdoors antique show, I came across a vintage calendar from 1965. As my eyes settled on this fine piece of lost Americana, all else slipped away … A light from the heavens shone directly on Hilda’s sweet, rosy face, fiery red mop top and that incredible abundant anatomy. Hilda is the only known ample sized icon in pin-up history that I have come upon. And yes, she very well does qualify as an icon.”

So let’s hang out with Hilda and appreciate her sexy round bottom for a moment …

Discover more of Hilda and her playful adventures on ToilGirls.com

 

4 Comments

Filed under Humor and Observations

Mayan sculpture discovered in Guatemalan pyramid

Mayan sculpture discovered in Guatemalan pyramid

Francisco Estrada-Belli working on the frieze in an undated photoThe figures are richly decorated with quetzal feathers and jade

Archaeologists working in a Mayan pyramid in Guatemala have discovered an “extraordinary” stucco sculpture depicting gods and Mayan leaders.

The frieze, which is eight metres long and two metres wide (26ft by six feet), shows three figures decorated with quetzal feathers and jade sitting atop the head of a mountain spirit.

It was found at the pre-Columbian archaeological site of Holmul.

Site director Francisco Estrada-Belli called it it a once-in-a lifetime find.

Snake Lords v Tikal

The frieze was found below a 20m-high (65ft) pyramid which was built over it in the 8th Century.

“The preservation is wonderful because it was very carefully packed with dirt before they started building over it,” Mr Estrada-Belli said.

The sculpture is believed to depict the crowning of a new Mayan leader in about AD590.

It also bears an inscription made up of 30 glyphs, which was deciphered by Harvard University expert Alex Tokovinine.

The inscription says that the carving was commissioned by the ruler of a nearby city-state, Ajwosaj ChanK’inich.

The archaeologists say the frieze and its inscription shed light on a classical period of Maya rule in which two rival kingdoms, Tikal and the Snake Lords, fought for control of the region.

Mr Tokovinine says the inscription suggests that Ajwosaj, who was a vassal of the Snake Lords, came to the site to re-establish the local political and religious order after Holmul, which had supported the Tikal kingdom, had switched sides.

Leave a comment

Filed under Humor and Observations

Cosplay Interviews

Each month I am interviewing cosplayers for publication and radio broadcasts in conjunction with Patti Hulstrand at The WOD and KWOD radio.  Last month Toni Darling was the headline article and this month Cassandra S. Kyle will be featured.  I am currently scheduling Cara Nicole, AZ Powergirl for recording and interview.  If you would like to join in and get on the schedule so your fan base can learn more about you, please let me know at eiverness@cox.net.  The interviews are very pro-cosplay and you will receive sample questions in advance.

1 Comment

Filed under Humor and Observations, Writing

Things You Would Like to Have

This is another recurring post of mine on things you don’t need but you would like to have.

1 Comment

Filed under Humor and Observations

What is the ‘Hyperloop’?

What is the ‘Hyperloop’? Billionaire Elon Musk to reveal futuristic transportation idea

By Mike Wall

Smarter America

Published August 12, 2013

  • 091231-spacex-elon-02

    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands next to the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted SpaceX’s Dragon capsule into orbit in December 2010. (SpaceX)

The fevered speculation about billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s mysterious “Hyperloop” transport system is about to come to an end.

Musk, the visionary behind electric-car firm Tesla and the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has said he will unveil a Hyperloop design on Monday, Aug. 12, after teasing the world about the superfast travel technology for more than a year.

The solar-powered Hyperloop would allow passengers to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, Musk has said, meaning it must travel at speeds greater than 600 mph. The system would be cheap and convenient, he added, with tickets costing less than a seat aboard a plane or train and Hyperloop vehicles departing frequently from their various stations.

‘[It’s] a cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table.’

– Elon Musk 

Though we don’t know exactly how the Hyperloop will work or what it will look like, Musk has dropped some hints since first disclosing the concept in July 2012. For example, this past May he described the Hyperloop as a “cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table.”

Using that statement as inspiration, self-described “tinker” John Gardi drew up a design of a system that uses air to blast cars through long tubes. Gardi’s concept “is the closest I’ve seen anyone guess so far,” Musk tweeted on July 15. (See the diagram on Gardi’s Twitter page here.)

Musk has shared some other news about the project lately, revealing that he probably won’t have much time to develop the Hyperloop — at least not in the near future.

“I have to focus on core Tesla business and SpaceX business, and that’s more than enough,” Musk said Tuesday, Aug. 7, during a conference call with Tesla investors, Gizmodo reported.

During the call, Musk expressed hope that the worldwide community of engineers, inventors and tinkers can make something happen with the Hyperloop design he puts out there. But he didn’t close off the possibility of helping out in the future.

“If nothing happens for a few years, with that I mean maybe it could make sense to make the halfway path with Tesla involvement,” Musk said, according to Gizmodo. “But [what] I would say is, you shouldn’t be speculative.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/08/12/what-is-hyperloop-billionaire-elon-musk/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2bsGQEnOO

Leave a comment

Filed under Humor and Observations

‘Pixie dust’ helps man grow new finger

‘Pixie dust’ helps man grow new finger

A man who sliced off the end of his finger in an accident has re-grown the digit thanks to pioneering regenerative medicine.

Lee Spievak showing his severed and regrown finger

Lee Spievak’s finger took about four weeks to regrow  Photo: AP

By Laura Clout

7:24PM BST 30 Apr 2008

Lee Spievak, 69, severed half an inch from his fingertip after getting it caught in the propellor of a model plane.

But over four months he watched as a perfectly-formed replacement grew from his stump, complete with tissue, nerves, nail, skin, and fingerprint.

Doctors now hope that the treatment – using a powder called extra cellular matrix – could be used to repair severely burnt skin, or even damaged organs.

Mr Spievak, who works in a hobby shop in Ohio, was unable to find his severed fingertip and doctors told him he had lost it for good.

His brother Alan, who works in the field of regenerative medicine, sent him the powder, which Mr Spievak calls ‘pixie dust’.

For ten days he put a little on the end of his finger, and says after just two applications the re-growth was already visible.

He told BBC News: “Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger. It took about four weeks before it was sealed.”

Now he says he has “complete feeling, complete movement”.

The inventor of the powder, Dr Stephen Badylak from the University of Pittsburgh, has pioneered a process which involves scraping cells from the lining of a pig’s bladder.

The tissue is then “cleaned” of all cells in acid and dried out before being turned into sheets, or a powder.

Scientists believe that when the extra cellular matrix is put on a wound, it stimulates cells in the tissue to grow rather than a scar.

Dr Badylak said: “I think that within ten years that we will have strategies that will re-grow the bones, and promote the growth of functional tissue around those bones. And that is a major step towards eventually doing the entire limb.”

The US military is poised to start trials of the powder to regrow parts of the fingers of injured soldiers.

Another trial in Buenos Aires will involve a woman who has cancer of the oesophagus.

2 Comments

Filed under Humor and Observations

More Cosplay Pictures

More cosplay pictures for your enjoyment.  For other cosplay posts, please type “cosplay” into the search box on my home page.

1 Comment

Filed under Humor and Observations

Rare Books

Here are a list of some rare books and their prices.  Just a reminder, you can buy my books today instead of waiting years until they cost millions.

1 Comment

Filed under Humor and Observations, Writing

Chinese Building One Million Strong ‘robot army’

Foxconn to Speed Up ‘robot Army’ Deployment; 20,000 Robots Already in its Factories

Foxconn also looking at the U.S. and Indonesia for expansion

By Michael Kan 
Wed, June 26, 2013
 
IDG News Service (Beijing Bureau) — Manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group is on track with its goal to a create a “million robot army”, and already has 20,000 robotic machines in its factories, said the company’s CEO Terry Gou on Wednesday.
 
robot army 0

Workers’ wages in China are rising, and so the company’s research in robots and automation has to catch up, Gou said, while speaking at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Taipei. “We have over 1 million workers. In the future we will add 1 million robotic workers,” he said. “Our [human] workers will then become technicians and engineers.”

Foxconn is the world’s largest contract electronics maker and counts Apple, Microsoft and Sony as some of its clients. Many of its largest factories are in China, where the company employs 1.2 million people, but rising Add a comment are threatening to reduce company profits.

To offset labor costs and improve its manufacturing, Foxconn has already spent three years on developing robots, Gou said. These machines are specifically developed to assemble electronics such as mobile phones, but it will take some time for Foxconn to fully develop the technology, he added.

robot army 1

“It’s a middle to long-term goal,” Gou said. But already 20,000 robot arms and robotic tools are in use at the company’s factories.

Robotics have long been used to manufacture cars and large electronics. But currently, human workers are still the best choice to put together small consumer gadgets, many of which contain complicated wiring and small sockets that are best handled with human hands, according to experts.

In addition, Foxconn’s CEO said the company is prepared to expand its manufacturing in the U.S., but the move will depend on “economic factors.” The company already has factories in Indianapolis and Houston, and employs thousands of workers in the country, according to Gou.

Last December, Foxconn customer Apple said it would manufacture one of its Mac lines in the U.S. by the end of next year. Soon after, Foxconn said it was considering growing its existing manufacturing base in the country.

robot army 2

The Taiwanese company is also exploring building factories in Indonesia, a country with significantly lower labor costs than the U.S. or China. One possible plan is for Foxconn to build electronics for the local market, which is home to 240 million people.

“Indonesia has great potential and its a great market for my company,” Gou said. “Definitely we will put a lot of investment in Indonesia.”

The company, however, is waiting for the nation’s government to improve the regulations for its tech sector. Standards over electronics safety are so low that anyone can get away with selling shoddy mobile phones, said a Foxconn official in December.

“The direction is right, but we need to take time,” Gou added. “We think in one or two years this will happen.”

1 Comment

Filed under Humor and Observations

German Boy Finds Mummy In Grandmother’s Attic

Alexander Kettler, German Boy, Finds Mummy In Grandmother’s Attic

The Huffington Post  |  By Posted: 08/05/2013 7:35 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/06/2013 11:34 am EDT

Alexander Kettler was playing in his grandmother’s home in Diepholz, Germany, last week when he stumbled across something unusual: a sarcophagus.

Alongside dust-covered boxes and clutter, the 10-year-old found a mummy in his grandmother’s attic, according to local reports. His family reportedly had never before come across the curious items.

“There was a huge sarcophagus and inside a mummy,” Kettler’s father Lutz Wolfgangtold Spiegel Online. “Then we opened the other cases and found an earthenware Egyptian death mask and a Canopic Jar.”

mummy

The elder Kettler suspects the ancient artifacts may have belonged to his late father, who traveled through North Africa during the 1950s. As the BBC notes, Kettler believes the sarcophagus and artifacts are replicas, but he said he thinks the mummy may be the real deal.

Testing will be required to confirm if the wrapped figure within the sarcophagus is an actual mummy. Kettler told the Bild newspaper that he plans to transport the mummy to Berlin for examination.

If the mummy is proven to be an authentic Egyptian antiquity, authorities in Egypt will seek to bring the relic back to the country.

“Diplomacy is a successful way to resolve these sorts of issues, and it is not costly,” Abdel Maqsoud, deputy director of the Antiquities Sector at Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, told Egypt Independent. “We should first check if the piece left the country legally and find out if it is registered at any museum.”

3 Comments

Filed under Humor and Observations